Society and Culture

Norms

Culture

Most people associate status with the prestige of a person’s lifestyle, education, or
vocation. According to sociologists, status describes the position a person
occupies in a particular setting. We all occupy several statuses and play the roles that may be
associated with them. A role is the set of norms, values, behaviors, and
personality characteristics attached to a status. An individual may occupy the
statuses of student, employee, and club president and play one or more roles with each one.

Example: Status as student

Role 1: Classroom: Attending class, taking notes, and communicating with the professor

Role 2: Fellow student: Participating in study groups, sharing ideas, quizzing other
students

At any given time, the individual described above can also occupy the statuses of
athlete, date, confidant, or a number of others, depending on the setting. With each change of
status, the individual plays a different role or roles.

Society’s Definition of “Roles”

Societies decide what is considered appropriate role behavior for different statuses.
For example, every society has the “mother” status. However, some societies consider it
inappropriate for a mother to assume the role of authority in the family. Other societies
ascribe lots of power to the status of mother. In some societies, students are expected to be
completely obedient to teachers. In American society, the student role involves asking the
teacher questions and even challenging the teacher’s statements.

Role Conflict

Role conflict results from the competing demands of two or more roles
that vie for our time and energy. The more statuses we have, and the more roles we take on, the
more likely we are to experience role conflict.

A member of a nonindustrialized society generally has just a few statuses, such as
spouse, parent, and villager. A typical middle-class American woman, meanwhile, probably has
many statuses, and therefore many roles. She may be a mother, wife, neighbor, member of the
PTA, employee, boss, town council president, and part-time student. Because people in
modernized societies have so many roles, they are more likely than people in nonindustrialized
societies to experience role conflict.

Example: A working father is expected at work on time but is late because one of his children
is sick. His roles as father and employee are then in conflict. A role for his father status
dictates that he care for his sick child, while a role for his employee status demands that he
arrive at work on time.